Summary

Teachers will participate in:

• Two-day onsite training at The Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital with board certified medical physicists the first week in August 2023.
• Teachers will develop lesson plans in collaboration with Teaching and Learning Research Experts at The Ohio State University
• Teachers will teach their lessons in their classrooms in the Fall of 2023.
• Teachers will participate in the first Physics in Medicine Day for Central Ohio Students hosted at The Ohio State University in the Spring of 2024.
• Teachers will host an encore Physics in Medicine Day open to educators for professional development in the Summer of 2023

Additional Details

Summer 2023

• Medical Physicists will provide an introduction to radiation generation and detection for teachers. A 2-day in-person session will be scheduled at the James Cancer Hospital in early August 2023. Teachers will be able to explore the physics content in a way that is hands-on and practical. Activities will include the science involved in the detection and treatment of cancer. The session will include a tour of the department, introduction to medical imaging and radiation therapy delivery using linear accelerators, and discussions with medical physicists to provide an experience of observing how physics is applied in medicine and provide opportunities for discussion and explorations for science teachers. Teachers will participate in reflection opportunities for the application of physics in medicine throughout the sessions.
• Teachers will collaborate with medical physicists to develop a lesson plan on a particular aspect of medical physics which is age and content appropriate for their students so that it is applicable to their learners. The goal of the lesson plans is to create a class lesson plan that could be implemented within a high school or middle school physics class. The lessons will be codeveloped to incorporate active learning strategies and accurate scientific content in a way that is engaging for students. Teachers will select their topic of focus for the lesson plan and develop an outline for the session. The teachers will be paired with a medical physicist to further develop the ideas for the class and serve as a subject matter expert in the technical components of the material. The development of the assessment of the student learning will be done with collaboration with faculty within the department of Teaching and Learning specializing in secondary STEM education. Assessments will be developed as open-ended questions and multiple-choice questions for students to understand students’ ideas about the application of physics in society, understanding of the specific application of physics in medicine, and the overall effectiveness of the lesson plan.

Fall 2023

• A 2-hour implementation session will be scheduled with teachers to support application of their lesson plan during the fall semester. We will schedule a meeting for pre-implementation support to understand and address concerns the teachers may have before teaching be they about specific content, classroom practices, or student reaction.
• Teachers will schedule to teach the unit with their students with designed learning assessments. Researchers from the University will observe lessons and interview students to obtain feedback about student learning and feedback for the teacher based on the developed assessment plan.
• An after implementation follow up session will be scheduled to debrief with the teachers to understand how the classroom teaching and student learning went. This 2-hour in-service session will be scheduled as a large group for reflection and to refine lesson plans.

Spring 2024

• In the Spring of 2024, a one-day Physics in Medicine Day will be hosted at the James Cancer Hospital. Each participating school will be able to send up to 30 students to the event. Teachers participating in the program will present their lessons to the students. In this setting, students will be able to learn in classrooms from teachers participating in the program. Student will be able to observe the application of physics in state-of-the-art medical equipment and experience simulations of clinical workflows involving medical physics.
• Final lesson plans will be posted so they are publicly available to facilitate learning and collaboration to advance the visibility of physics and technology careers.

Summer 2024

• To increase the impact of the program, a one-day in-service will be hosted for STEM teachers. The program will include modeling of the teaching from the Science of Physics in Medicine Day and additional educational programing for STEM teachers to engage with the application of physics in medicine in a practical way.